Sheet delivery mechanism for printing machines



Jan. 10, 1956 P. DIETRICH ETAL 2,730,363

SHEET DELIVERY MECHANISM FOR PRINTING MACHINES Filed May 12. 1951 IN V EN TOR$ PAUL DIETRICH a y EMIL KOLLAND ATTORNEYS United States Patent SHEET DELIVERY MECHANISM FOR PRINTING MACHINES Paul Dietrich and Emil Kolland, Augsburg, Germany, as-

signors to Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Numberg A. G., Augsburg, Germany, a corporation of Germany Application May 12, 1951, Serial No. 225,964

Claims priority, application Germany May 19, 1950 4 Claims. (Cl. 271-79) This invention relates to a chain type sheet delivery mechanism for printing machines.

In the known chain delivery mechanism for printing machines the chain during its entire revolution has a uniform speed which corresponds to the peripheral speed of the impression cylinder. As a result, the sheet has to be delivered starting from the full travelling speed of the chain, so that special means are required for its retardation, in order that it may not be injured at the delivery pile board. This retardation will be the more difiicult the higher the speed of rotation of the machine 1s.

It is an object of the present invention to remove these difiiculties.

With this and further objects in view, according to the present invention the chain delivery travels at a variable speed, in such a way that the same is slower than the peripheral speed of the impression cylinder during the delivery. It is even contemplated within the purview of this invention to reduce the travelling speed of the chain delivery to such a low figure during the delivery that the sheet to be delivered does not require any additional means whatever for its retardation. In this case such additional means accordingly are saved entirely and the construction of the machine therefore is simplified.

The invention moreover offers the possibility to provide an average travelling speed of the chain delivery which is below the peripheral speed of the impression cylinder, by avoiding a speed exceeding the peripheral speed of the impression cylinder following a corresponding reduction of the speed, so that the path to be traversed by its gripper during each cycle of the machine becomes shorter than that to be traversed in case of a revolution with the uniform peripheral speed of the impression cylinder. Thus the chain delivery can be made shorter, which results in a more compact construction.

It will be understood that the grippers of the chain delivery have to be distributed in such a way that no delivery takes place as a sheet is seized or fed since the feed is to be made at a speed corresponding to the peripheral speed of the impression cylinder while the delivery shall be made at a speed which is substantially lower. The provision of two grippers on the chain proved to be particularly advantageous and simple.

In order to produce a variable speed, gear means as known per se may be used. According to a special feature of the invention a particularly simple design can be obtained by the provision of a cam groove arranged in a gear wheel disk lying in the train of the chain wheel drive and swinging to and fro a carrier of planetary wheels inserted in the chain wheel drive.

Other and further objects, features and advantages of the invention will be pointed out hereinafter and appear in the appended claims forming part of the application.

In the accompanying drawings a now preferred embodiment of the invention is shown by way of illustration and not by way of limitation.

Fig. 1 is a side view of the machine,

Fig. 2 is a cross section through the planetary gear drive for the chain delivery mechanism,

Fig. 3 is a front view of Fig. 2.

Referring now to the drawings in greater detail, it will be seen that the sheets coming from the feeding apparatus 1 are fed to the impression cylinder 4 over the horse 3 by means of the well known feeding device 2 and taken along by the impression cylinder, whereby the sheet is printed by the composition or matter 6 over which the ink has been distributed by the inking apparatus 5, whereupon the printed sheets are fed to the delivery pile board 8 by the chain delivery 7 having two grippers 58, 58'. The composition 6 is enclosed in a reciprocating type bed 9 which is supported for sliding motion on the machine frame. The toothed segment 19 engages in the rack 20 arranged under the type bed 9 in the middle thereof and moves the type bed to and fro.

The chain Wheel 51 is driven from the toothed wheel 40 which is mounted on the shaft 41, through the coaxial toothed wheel 42 and the toothed wheels 44, 45,

mounted on the shaft 43, and three planetary wheels 46 symmetrically arranged on a disc 47 loosely mounted on the shaft 43. If it is assumed, to begin with, that this disk is stationary, the rotary motion of the planetary wheels 46 will be transmitted to the internal gear wheel 57 which is loosely mounted between the gear wheels 44 and 45 on their Wheel body. The gear wheel 57 moreover is formed with an external toothing 48 engaged by the pinion 49 which transmits the rotary motion through the shaft 50 on the chain wheel 51 for driving the chain 7. Actually, however, the disc 47 is not stationary in the space, but it is swung about its shaft 43 by a roller 53 mounted thereon by a pivot 52 and guided in a cam groove 54 provided in the gear Wheel disk 40 and rotating therewith. Depending on the course of the groove or curve 54 the disk 47 will be moved in the direction of rotation of the internal gear wheel 57 or against said direction and therefore it will act to accelerate or retard the same. Hence, the gripper 58 on delivery (Fig. 1) carries out a low speed motion which is also imparted to the other gripper 58' which however is accelerated again to the full peripheral speed of the impression cylinder by the moment when the sheet is seized by the impression cylinder 4. At this moment the gripper 58 has already delivered its sheet. While the invention has been described in detail with respect to a now preferred example and embodiment of the invention it will be understood by those skilled in the art after understanding the invention, that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and it is intended, therefore, to cover all such changes and modifications in the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

1. A variable speed drive for printing press chain delivery mechanism comprising in combination a main drive gear driven by said press, a control cam on one face of said main drive gear for controlling variations in speed of said variable speed drive, a planetary gear system including a sun gear, a plurality of planetary gears meshing therewith, and a rotatable carrier on which said planetary gears are mounted, means for rotatably mounting said carrier coaxially with said sun gear and in substantially face to face relation with said cam face of said main drive gear, means for driving said sun gear from said main drive gear, output gear means driven by said planetary gears at variable speeds as said carrier moves on its said rotatable mounting, a cam follower on said carrier and engaging said control cam on said face of said main drive gear effecting oscillation of said carrier for varying the speed of said output gear means, and means for driving said chain delivery mechanism from said output gear means.

2. A variable speed gear drive for the chain delivery mechanism of a printing press, which comprises in combination a main drive gear driven by said press, an eccentric cam on one face of said main drive gear for controlling variations in speed of said variable speed drive, a planetary gear system including a sun gear, a plurality of planetary gears meshing therewith, and a rotatable carrier on which said planetary gears are mounted, means for mounting said planetary gear system closely adjacent said cam face of said main drive gear, means for driving said sun gear from said main drive gear, an internal gear driven by said planetary gears at variable speeds as said carrier moves rotatably, a cam follower on said carrier and engaging said cam on said face of said main drive gear effecting variable movement of said planetary gears with respect to said sun gear for varying the speed of said internal gear, and means for driving said chain delivery mechanism from said internal gear.

3. A. variable speed drive for printing press chain delivery mechanism comprising in combination a main drive gear driven by said press, a control cam on one face of said main drive gear for controlling variations in speed of said variable speed drive, a planetary gear system including a sun gear, a plurality of planetary gears meshing therewith, and an oscillatable carrier on which said planetary gears are mounted, means for mounting said carrier for oscillation about the axis of said sun gear and in substantially face to face relation with said cam face of said main drive gear, an intermediate gear locked to said main drive gear and meshing with said sun gear, an internal gear driven by said planetary gears at variable speeds as said carrier oscillates with respect to said sun gear, output gearing on the outside of said internal gear for driving said chain delivery mechanism, and a cam follower on said carrier and engaging said control cam on said face of said main drive gear effecting oscillation of said carrier for varying the speed of said internal gear and said chain delivery mechanism.

4. A variable speed gear drive for the chain delivery mechanism of a printing press comprising in combination a main drive gear driven by said press, an eccentric cam on one face of said main drive gear for controlling variations in speed of said variable speed drive, a planetary gear system including a sun gear and a plurality of planetary gears meshing therewith, means for mounting said planetary gears for oscillation about the axis of said sun gear and closely adjacent said cam face of said main drive gear, means for driving said sun gear from said main drive gear, output gear means driven by said planetary gears at variable speeds as said planetary gears oscillate around the axis of said sun gear, a cam follower on said planetary gear mounting engaging said cam on said face of said main drive gear effecting oscillation of said planetary gears about the axis of said sun gear for varying the speed of said output gear means, and means for driving said chain delivery mechanism from said output gear means.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,537,594 Elsworth et al May 12, 1925 2,226,674 Seybold Dec. 31, 1940 2,392,349 Webb Jan. 8, 1946 2,610,850 Huck Sept. 16, 1 952 2,620,033 Wood Dec. 2, 1952 

